


Men Were Deceivers Ever

by Ambrose



Series: Dare to Write Challenge [31]
Category: Winter's Tale - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 05:47:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8566339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambrose/pseuds/Ambrose
Summary: Hermione changes her mind and does not reveal herself to Leontes. Things could go on as normal, except...





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RatherCharmingVermin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RatherCharmingVermin/gifts).



Her daughter is alive! Perdita is alive! 

Hermione swirls around, holding on to Paulina and hugging her. The oracle was right! Her daughter is alive! 

And yet... what is left for her but to watch her grow from afar, to be a stranger to her, while her husband takes her for his rightful daughter and raises her instead? When he was so quick to throw her to the wolves! 

It's Paulina who suggests the statue trick, and she invites the king and his whole retinue to their house. Well, Paulina's house, but she has lived here for the past sixteen years in secrecy, for all intents and purposes it's her house too. 

But at the last minute, when she is ready to climb on her pedestal and come to life for her daughter, she has a servant come in and get Paulina for her before everyone is shown in.

"I can't, Paulina, I can't! I know I said I was willing to make this sacrifice for my Perdita, but I cannot go back to him! What if he does it all over again? What if he figures it out and blame me for all these years he felt guilty of my death? No, I can't take the risk!"

"They're all there!" Paulina whispers. It's not that she is angry, Hermione knows, but she's putting her in a difficult situation. And they need to find a plan B, quickly.

"They came here to see a statue, show them a statue. Then they can leave."

"I don't _have_  a statue, and I don't want to risk you being discovered if you don't want to go —"

"It's a risk we have to take, I'm afraid. If it comes to that, I'll go. If they suspect it, do as we planned. Better that than you being found out too."

 

Hermione manages to stay completely still the whole time. It helps that they're standing far away. Also, she has her eyes closed. She doesn't know how she would react if she did see her daughter. She's certain she would not be able to stay so still - or silent - for a single second. But Hermione has the training of someone who had to stay hidden for the past sixteen years, mostly living in Paulina's chambers, but sometimes having to hide motionless in a closet when an unexpected visit brought people to the house when she wasn't in hiding already. She has always been pale, too, and that serves her well now. 

She can hear Leontes' afflicted tone, and even to her it does not sound real. She struggles not to scoff. It can never be real enough for the pain he has brought her. He can very well mourn her forever! And to think she almost relented, almost gave in and wanted to go back with him, after sixteen years! And all these years for nothing: she always held out in the hope that they would receive news of Perdita, and every other year when Paulina would suggest they leave Sicily, so they could live freely elsewhere, Hermione would refuse. No, there might  still be news! And it wasn't all in vain... But what about it now? There is joy in knowing her daughter is alive, but so much pain in knowing they will be forever separated!

They admire the statue for a while - when Leontes comments that it looks so real you might think it moves, she thinks she has been found out, but Paulina says nothing but compliments her sculpture, and Hermione tries her best to breathe as quietly as possible. 

Finally, they leave. She thinks she will finally be able to breathe, but Paulina takes Perdita apart (so she guesses) and invites her to stay a moment longer if she wants to hear more about who her mother was. As Perdita vehemently agrees, she gets a servant to lead her to another parlour. Finally, Paulina comes forward and take her hand. Hermione opens her eyes and, seeing that they are alone in the room, she lets herself fall to sit on her pedestal.

"I could never think it would be so exhausting."

Paulina tries to hug her, but Hermione gently pushes her away.

"What did you go asking for Perdita to stay?"

"You're not going to let her live with him and hearing who you are from him, are you? No. It's enough that you have to hide. You and your daughter deserve the truth, you deserve the chance to know her. Fate did not spare her for the both of you to keep being miserable. Only he deserves that." 

"You want me to... To show myself to her?" 

"Only if you want to, of course. You don't have to come directly, you can listen, and if you think she will understand..."

"I don't know, Paulina, what if she hates me? What if she holds me responsible?"

"She won't. She looks like a very sensible girl! But if she _is_  as bad as her father, we can always flee as we planned to. There are countries enough where they would not be able to find us. Even your brother surely would welcome you back!"

Hermione thinks back to her childhood, in the snowy court of Moscow. Her father was harsh, but he would never have tolerated what happened to her. Nor would he have taken her back. But her brother has always been kind, although they sau his wife and brother-in-law were mostly reigning for him. And yet she has gotten so used to warmer climates, even if Feodor would welcome her back, she isn't sure she could live there. She isn't sure she could live at all if her daughter repudiated her.

"Come on, now, she'll wonder why I make her wait!"

 

Perdita listens, and Perdita cries. She hears Paulina on the whole story - the one Polixenes refused to tell her, the one her father wasn't going to tell her when he said how deeply he loved her mother. She hears about who her mother was, and the prophecy of Perdita's return and the Oracle's warning that Leontes would not heed. All Paulina doesn't tell is about Hermione's death, Hermione still being alive. She tells of the death of Mamillius, and how much it hurt her mother. How her father's regrets came too late to protect anyone. 

When Hermione decides to come through the door, to reveal herself to her daughter, she thinks for a moment she will tell her she is too cruel, that she will reject her. But if Perdita thinks her father is really remorseful, she still understands her mother. She would not, she says, want to live with Florizel again if he acted like that with her. If he killed her children. Some things maybe aren't to be forgiven, no matter how heavy the remorse. She agrees to come and see her mother regularly, under the guise of talking with Paulina about her. No-one will know, she promises. Not even her Florizel. 

She acts like a woman, she is wise beyond her years, Hermione realises. She learned how to run a house all by herself. These sixteen years, Hermione isn't going to get them back. Still, she can learn to know her daughter.

 

Later that night, when they lie together, as they have for the past sixteen years, and sleep escapes them both, Paulina softly says, "You know, it's not too late to do as I suggested all these years ago."

Hermione turns towards her, horrified. It's dark but she's pretty sure Paulina can see her expression anyway. "I'm not running away! Why would you suggest this now, when it's you who convinced me to talk to her?"

"Not _that_  suggestion. You could... haunt him. Make sure he knows because he has found Perdita again doesn't mean all is forgiven. Make sure he remembers you. That girl of yours is capable. She deserves what is hers by right. Make him give it to her. Make someone sensible reign over this kingdom!"

"She may be sensible but she's been raised by shepherds, she knows nothing of the state! Her husband will take over soon as anything, and how could that help?"

"He could help her. _You_ could help her. You were raised in one of the greatest courts of Europe, queen of another."

But Hermione objects, and Paulina drops it.

 

Hermione tries not to think about it again - it is tempting, and it's only what Leontes deserves, after all, but she is better than that. And she does not believe she would be doing any good to the kingdom either. 

But when time passes and her daughter becomes wary of coming to see her, when she comes back with all the marks of abuse and swears that it is not her husband's doing - when Paulina tells her she has seen Florizel himself defend his wife from his father - Hermione has had it. 

Wasn't it enough that he would abuse her, treat her like a whore and drag her in front of a tribunal, doubt her word and the gods', let one child die and send the other to her death, along with poor Antigonus who did not survive like Perdita did? Wasn't all that enough? Did not sixteen year teach him anything, teach him repentance as he so claimed when he wanted Paulina to allow him to remarry? Who does he think he is to treat a queen, a daughter of emperor, like he treated her, and then disrespect her memory by treating their daughter just the same? What fool she has been to think he could have changed? And what are his excuses this time? That she looks too much like her mother? that she is too headstrong? Hermione isn't going to let him kill her only surviving child. 

 

That night, Paulina helps her get into the castle through the kitchens. The guards do not stir as Leontes cries out that the ghost of his dead wife has come to kill him. He has had visions of her before, they are used to it. He cries out his regrets, and swears that he will treat their daughter better. Swears that he will abdicate and give her the kingdom. 

The guards are astonished, though, when the king, all pale and sickly, does not dare sit on his throne, and looks behind his shoulder as if someone is watching him. 

The haunting goes on, worse than it has ever been in the early days of Hermione's death, and the guards are more and more hesitant. Should they bring it up? Should they try to find someone to help him? They say Lady Paulina is a witch, but would she agree to help him, when he killed the former queen? Do they even want anyone to help him, as if he doesn't deserve this fate for the way he treated her, for the way they see him treat his daughter, who is all that is left of the old queen in this world? For the way he oversees the kingdom as if nothing had happened and persecutes his people like a tyrant? the way he treats _them_? They are faithful to him, they will not betray him, but they won't help him either. What can mere guards do, after all, against supernatural phenomenons? Aren't they the useless idiots he always calls them?

One night the cries are so terrifying that they do barge into the king's chambers, but not quickly enough to prevent him from throwing himself through the window. 

On his desk, a parchment signed by him gives the kingdom to his daughter, and against the wall stands a statue that looks incredibly like queen Hermione, had she lived to this day. When they come back with Perdita, and about half the court that was raised by the loud _thud_  of the body on the ground, the statue is gone.

Later, when queen Perdita takes over, with her faithful husband and Paulina to counsel her, some rare supporters of the old dead king speak of witchcraft. Soon, though, they come to realise that she makes a far better queen than he ever was a king. She takes from her mother, and it looks as if she takes her advice directly from her, as well. No-one dares question why the old queen Hermione's apartments are now forbidden, but for a few trusted servants. If her daughter spends most of her days there when she is not holding court, everyone assumes she is honouring her mother's memory. If some suspect something when an unknown-before sister of Hermione comes to court from foreign Russia, who looks exactly like old queen, they do not say anything. After all, Hermione is long dead, they all saw her die and buried her, who could think this was really her? And if she is really come back from the dead, and is guiding her daughter? Nobody can blame her for not wanting to exist in the same realm as the old king. 


End file.
